DEPECHE MODE, Depeche Mode Singles Boxes 1-6 (Reprise/Mute). Admit it: You "Just Can't Get Enough" of these synth-pop icons. You need all 36 singles they've released since 1981, housed in their original sleeves and encased in austere black boxes. Vince Clarke's early genius for indelible, buoyant melodies still resonates over two decades later; I can't help feeling deep nostalgia for "Dreaming of Me," "New Life," and "Just Can't Get Enough." While I lost interest after "Everything Counts," millions followed DM into their gothy electro-drama and stadium-electronica phases. This cornucopia is for them. (Box 6 particularly may appeal to DB readers, with its plethora of remixes by Plastikman, Kid606, LFO, and others.)
SUPERPITCHER, Here Comes Love (Kompakt; www.kompakt-net.de). Superpitcher (Aksel Schaufler) possesses perhaps the sweetest pop touch among tech-house producers. On his hotly anticipated debut album, he even turns faux reggae into swoon-worthy tuneage. Often deploying the stompin' neo-glam rhythm known as "schaffel" (shuffle), Superpitcher whisper-croons romantic somethings amid heart-inflating strings, impressionist synth daubs, and glistening vibes. Here Comes Love ought to be the tech-house opus that converts the tune-loving rock masses to this genre.
METAL BOYS, Tokio Airport (Acute; www.acuterecords.com). The synth-rock offshoot of seminal French post-punks Métal Urbain (Steve Albini and Jesus & Mary Chain worship 'em), Metal Boys dropped this oddity to zero acclaim in 1980. Alternately quirkily tuneful and jaggedly ominous, Tokio Airport sounds like an amalgam of Suicide, early Cabaret Voltaire, and Italian legend Franco Battiato. It's as crucial an '80s electronic album as anything by DAF or Liaisons Dangereuses. This reissue comes with nine bonus cuts.
VAUXHALL 44, sub-i (Inflatabl; www.inflatabl.com). If it's on Rip Off Artist's Inflatabl Records, it's sure to be playfully perverse and hip-ticklingly wonderful. So it is with Tokyo producer Yuki Kiba's debut album. Sub-i bubbles, skitters, gurgles, and clatters with peculiar anti-logic. Its askew, galloping rhythms and cheekily tweaked arsenal of slapstick and brainy sounds coagulate into some of the finest intelligent novelty music I've heard this year. You can dance like John Cleese to some of it, too.
DECOMPOSURE, Taking Things Apart (Unschooled; www.unschooled.com). Geekazoid IDM in full effect! Decomposure's tracks emerge from mundane sound sources (matches, headphones, a game of Scrabble), which the Vancouver, BC, producer then morphs into knotty rhythmic matrices and scything, inscrutable textures that sabotage your assumptions about said sources. Like Autechre and Richard Devine's work, Decomposure's clever sonic deconstructions stun you with their chaotic convolutions.
HORSE NOODLES, Horse Noodles (Lunaticworks; www.lunaticworks.com). Staying just on the right side of wacky, Horse Noodles' debut disc vacillates between Mr. Scruff-style jazztronica, Tipsy-esque exotica, and other twisted species of madcap sampladelia in which funky breaks with easy-listening strings copulate while swinging from the chandelier. You can imagine Mr. Noodles' goofy smile lit by his laptop as he seeks the most whimsical sounds for his happy-footed tracks. DAVE SEGAL
